A new school term has begun, which means the summer holiday is over for me. I can’t complain. If I worked in any other job, I’d have probably 41 days of annual leave, if I was lucky, rather than the 79 days I currently enjoy. It also saves us a bunch of money since we don’t have to pay for summer camp for our child. Nevertheless, I always have going-back-to-work blues after enjoying so much time off. Who doesn’t? Still, it’s fun to do a summer summary as a wrap-up to reflect on later. Here goes.

Summer writing progress

I think the random desktop image is trying to tell me something…

I didn’t get as much writing done this summer as I’d hoped to. I refrained from saying ‘intended to’ instead of ‘hoped’, since I actually didn’t have high expectations in the first place. It’s unrealistic to have set plans about word counts, etc, when childcare is involved. I chipped away at my WIPs when I could, which are now at the following word counts:

Ghost horror novel WIP#7 = 50,188 words

Psychological lit fic novel WIP#8 = 43,804 words

Ghost short story collection WIP#9 = 22,267 words

Summer keto/low carb diet

Paella at the Ocean restaurant in La Pineda, Spain in July

I’ll be honest, my diet completely derailed this summer. We went to Spain in mid-July on an all-inclusive holiday, and budgeted for a few meals in local restaurants too, and there was no way I was going to miss out on paella. To compensate for this, I stopped weighing myself as there’s no point getting depressed about adding on a few pounds, is there? Now that I’m back to my day work schedule, it’ll be tuna salads on my lunch break while snatching some writing time, so I imagine my clothes will be feeling looser soon.

Trying to go low carb back home in August

Summer adventures

Aside from Spain and day trips, we enjoyed staycation time with a few days down in Portaferry. Summer has been an active one, so even though I haven’t stuck to my diet, I’ve stayed fit through walking, hiking and playing with the little adventurer.

Windmill ruins on top of Windmill Hill, Portaferry
On the ferry to Strangford
Being a big kid – this tree was too good to resist climbing!

You know what? If, in a few weeks’ time, I get somewhat depressed being back to the 9-3, I’ll look back on this post to cheer myself up! Life is for enjoying the little things, and there were plenty of those moments with my hubby, son and friends this summer. Feeling thankful.

Posted by on August 25, 2024 in Biography, Random stuff and tagged , , , , , , .

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About Leilanie Stewart

Leilanie Stewart is an award-winning author and poet from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She writes ghost and psychological horror, as well as experimental poetry. Her writing confronts the nature of self; her novels feature main characters on a dark psychological journey who have a crisis and create a new sense of identity. She began writing for publication while working as an English teacher in Japan, a career pathway that has influenced themes in her writing. Her former career as an Archaeologist has also inspired her writing and she has incorporated elements of archaeology and mythology into both her fiction and poetry. In addition to promoting her own work, Leilanie runs Bindweed Anthologies, a creative writing publication with her writer husband, Joseph Robert. Aside from publishing pursuits, Leilanie enjoys spending time with her husband and their lively literary lad, a voracious reader of sea monster books.

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